The present invention is directed to a cable splice enclosure assembly. Assemblies of the type under consideration are particularly suited for enclosing and housing fiber optic splice cables, and the invention will be described with particular reference thereto; however, the apparatus could equally well be used with other types of cables.
Many different types of cable enclosures are known in the prior art. These prior enclosures are satisfactory to a greater or lesser degree but often have certain limitations which make them inconvenient to use or prevent them from being readily adaptable to changing environments and conditions. It is, accordingly, a primary object of the present invention to provide a cable enclosure assembly that is easy to assemble and use and which can be modified or adapted for different size cables and can be formed in a variety of different sizes that allow the size and number of splices to vary. In addition, the present invention provides an enclosure that allows ready access for changing or adding to the number of splices in the enclosure. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an end plate which is designed to receive various size cables without requiring drilling or modification during field use.
Access to ports within an end plate of existing cable closures requires the entire closure to be moved or rotated. This proves to be a time consuming and cumbersome process. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a cable enclosure which has a rotatable end member which allows rotation of an end plate to access various ports and cables prior to locking the end plate to a cable closure and provide for easy assembly/disassembly.
It is desirable to provide an end plate system having ports which are separated by a slot to allow installation of uncut fiber cables within the closure.
Existing grommets and caps require that the cable be inserted through the grommet and cap and into the closure port. It is a further object of the invention to provide grommets, caps and grommet tools and cap tools which are split or have first and second halves which allow the grommets, caps and tools to be installed over a cable after a cable is installed within the closure.
It is also desirable to provide an extender which is installed onto a closure to form a modular system which allows an existing closure to have additional area along a longitudinal axis for storing and/or splicing cables. It is further desirable to provide an expander which allows a cable closure of a greater diameter than an end plate to interface with the end plate.
It is also desirable to provide a bracket on an end of a management bar which allows for wrapping the cable within the management system and controlling the position of the cable.
It is also desirable to provide a splice tray support system which allows the splice trays to be stacked on top of each other and slid and locked into a pivoted position to allow access to lower splice trays.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved cable closure assembly which overcomes the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.